On Paragraphs

This morning, very early this morning, when only the newspaper delivery men and women-of-a-certain- age are awake, I decided to use my time constructively and build my first Blog. I’ve been thinking of writing a Blog for years, but always seemed to get distracted by something, or anything, that crossed my mind, path or vision. This morning, focus intact, my Blog got launched. My friend Victoria after reading my Blog gave me a tip about how to make my writings easier for others to read. “Use paragraphs”, she said. “Perhaps even leave a space between paragraphs” was her advice. Victoria, being a “newish” friend recently introduced to me by my friend Karen hasn’t spent enough time with me yet to realize that I don’t think in paragraphs.
¶ A “paragraph” as defined by my good pal Noah is: “A distinct division of a written work that expresses a thought or point relevant to the whole, but is complete in itself”. The idea or concept of a “distinct division of a thought” is totally foreign to me. My brain just isn’t wired that way. Everything I think is a conglomeration of the whole and it’s rare that I divide my thoughts into anything distinct, but simply skip merrily from one to the other letting them flow and dance with each other through my head. Rarely is anything in my head “complete in itself” and I can’t remember a time when I had a “division of thought”. (When I was still on-the-job and found myself in peril of getting my ass kicked or killed I was very good at dividing my thought. Something about a guy waving a knife in your face will help you to find that “distinct division”)
¶If I don’t think in paragraphs it’s impossible for me to write in paragraphs. Most of my friends and family have just gotten used to this quirkiness and have learned to keep up as I interject totally unrelated tidbits and snippets into our conversations easily coming back to the main topic after I digress. Okay, sometimes I forget the original topic and have to ask for directions on how to get back, but for the most part I can usually find my way home. Unless of course, I’m already bored with the original topic of conversation and ready to move on to something new. Which happens frequently…did I mention that I have AD/HD? A mind with AD/HD is just wired differently. I’ve accepted it, learned to work with it and, quite frankly, I like thinking in hyper-drive. Ah, but I digress from my musing on paragraphs. See, I warned you.
¶This Blog will probably be my only serious attempt at paragraphs and I’ve inserted some symbols here for dramatic effect. Sorry Victoria, you’re probably right that it’s easier to read through something that’s divided and separated into separate thoughts and ideas, but all this thinking about paragraphs is so distracting and demanding that I lose all the pleasure of having fifty thoughts coursing through my head and then constructing them into something cohesive and entertaining.
¶So for those of you who choose to enjoy reading my Blogs (and I hope this includes you Victoria), no matter how rambling they may at times seem, thank you. Thank you for allowing me the pleasure of sharing, minus the restrictions of structure and punctuation.